Walter Payne

Walter Payne (1881-) was an American accountant who worked as Al Capone's chief bookkeeper during Prohibition. In 1930, he was told to leave Chicago for a while as Capone was subpoenaed for tax evasion, and, when he returned with an entourage of Chicago Outfit bodyguards, he was ambushed by Treasury agents Eliot Ness and George Stone. Payne was rescued from Outfit gunman Lorenzo Galea, who threatened to shoot him unless he was allowed to walk away with him, and Payne then agreed to cooperate with the Treasury agents in their investigation of Capone. His testimony about Capone's businesses' payments to city officials and to Capone himself helped to prove that Capone had committed felonious income tax evasion, leading to him being sentenced to 11 years in prison.